Herbs, shrubs, or small trees. Leaves usually alternate, simple, entire lobed or cut, stipulate. Flowers regular or irregular, axillary, solitary or arranged in cymes or panicles, rarely racemose. Sepals 5, equal or unequal, imbricate. Petals 5, hypogynous, equal or unequal, lower one sometimes spurred, usually imbricate. Stamens 5, hypogynous; filaments short, broad; anthers erect, free or connate round the pistil; connective broad, usually produced beyond the cells into an appendage. Ovary free, 1-celled, with 3–5 parietal placentas; ovules many or few to each placenta. Fruit either a 3–5-valved capsule or a berry. Seeds usually small; embryo straight, in the axis of fleshy albumen.

An order scattered over the whole world, containing 22 genera and about 250 species. The roots of many of the species are emetic, and are used as a substitute for ipecacuanha. One of the New Zealand genera is found in most countries; the other two have a very limited distribution outside the colony.

Herbs. Flowers irregular, the lower petal produced into a spur. Fruit a capsule

Annual or perennial herbs of small size. Leaves tufted at the top of a short woody rootstock or alternate on creeping or trailing stems, stipulate. Flowers irregular, on radical or axillary 1-fiowered peduncles. Sepals 5, slightly produced at the base. Petals 5, spreading, the lowest usually longer and spurred at the base. Anthers 5, nearly sessile, the connectives flat, produced into a thin membrane beyond the cells, the two lower often spurred at the base. Style swollen above, straight or oblique at the tip. Capsule 3-valved; valves elastic, each with a single parietal placenta. Seeds ovoid or globose.

A large genus, widely diffused in all temperate climates, the species probably numbering considerably over 100. Two of the New Zealand species are endemic, the third extends to Tasmania.

In most of the species of the genus the flowers are dimorphic; some, which are usually produced early in the flowering season, having conspicuous flowers with large petals, as a rule ripening few seeds; others, which appear in late summer or autumn, being much smaller, with either minute petals or none at all, but which ripen abundance of seed. These are usually called cleistogamic flowers.

North and South Islands: Not uncommon from Kaitaia and Hokianga southwards; ascending to 4000 ft. on the Mount Arthur Plateau, Nelson. October–January.

Usually a larger plant than the preceding, with the stem not so decidedly creeping, larger leaves and longer petioles, and with the stipules and bracts entire, not lacerate. The cordate leaves separate it from V. Cunninghamii.

North and South Islands, Stewart Island: From Rotorua and the East Cape southwards; abundant in many places, especially in the mountains. Chatham Islands: Buchanan (Trans. N.Z. Inst. vii. 334). Altitudinal range from sea-level to 5000 ft. October–January. Also found in Tasmania.

The short stems and tufted leaves, which are usually either truncate at the base or narrowed into the petioles, are the best distinguishing characters of this plant. It varies greatly in size; lowland specimens, growing among scrub, &c., sometimes have the petioles 8–9 in. long, and the peduncles of corresponding size, while alpine specimens are frequently much depauperated. The flowers of the latter, however, are usually larger than those of the lowland forms.

Trees or shrubs. Leaves petiolate, alternate, toothed or serrate; stipules minute. Flowers small, regular, diœcious, in little fascicles on the branches or axillary. Sepals 5, united at the base. Petals 5, short, spreading. Anthers 5, free, sessile; connective produced above into a broad membrane furnished with a scale at the back. Ovary 1-celled, with 3–5 parietal placentas. Style 3–6-fid at the apex, or stigma nearly sessile, lobed. Fruit a berry, with few or several angled seeds.

A small genus, limited to the four New Zealand species, one of which is also found in Norfolk Island and the Tongan Islands.

North Island: Not uncommon in hilly forests from Kaitaia southwards to the Waikato River. South Island: Waikari Creek, near Dunedin, G. M. Thomson! Petrie! Sea-level to 2000 ft. September–October.

Easily distinguished from M. ramiflorus by the larger, more coriaceous, obovate leaves, and larger flowers on decurved pedicels, with the bracts placed just below the flowers. The Otago specimens have smaller leaves, but are not otherwise different.

North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Not uncommon in forests south of Whangarei. Ascends to 3000 ft. on Te Aroha Mountain. October–November.

This can be recognised by the narrow leaves, subulate appendage to the anthers, long 3-fid style, and minutely tuberculate seeds. The anthers often cohere at the back, as in Hymenanthera, but in habit and other respects the species agrees better with Melicytus.

North and South Islands: Abundant in lowland forests, by the side of streams, &c., from the Bay of Islands to Otago. November–May.

Easily distinguished from all other species of Melicytus by the stiff rigid habit, small leaves, and minute few-seeded berries. It is exceedingly variable; and the two varieties characterized above are certainly connected by intermediate forms. I am much indebted to Mr. Carse for a fine series of flowering and fruiting specimens of both varieties, collected near Mauku, where they appear to grow intermixed. Mr. Colenso's herbarium also contains numerous well-selected specimens.

Rigid woody shrubs. Leaves alternate or fascicled, entire or toothed; stipules minute, fugacious. Plowers small, regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, solitary or fascicled, axillary or on the naked branches below the leaves. Sepals 5, obtuse, united at the base. Petals 5, rounded at the tip. Anthers 5, sessile, connate into a tube surrounding the pistil; connectives terminating in a toothed or fimbriate process, and furnished with an erect scale at the back. Style short; stigma 2-fid, rarely 3–4-fid. Fruit a small subglobose berry; seeds usually 2, rarely 3–4.

A small genus of about half & dozen species, found in New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania, and Norfolk Island. The New Zealand species are exceedingly difficult of discrimination. They vary greatly in the leaves and vegetative characters generally; and the flowers and fruit, so far as they are known, are very similar in all. Most of them occur in localities which are not easily reaciied, making it difficult to secure specimens in a proper state for comparison.

A variable plant. One of Mr. Colenso's Cape Palliser specimens has slender branches bearing ovate-rhomboid leaves 1 in. long, the same branch also having linear- obovate leaves of the ordinary type.

2. H. dentata,R. Br., var. angustifolia,Benth. Fl. Austral. i. 104.—A much-branched frequently leafless rigid shrub, in sheltered situations 4–8 ft. high, with fiexuous or zigzag often interlaced branches; in exposed or alpine places shorter and much dwarfed, with the branches densely compacted and ending in stout thorns. Branchlets terete or grooved, covered with minute lenticels. Leaves few or many, often altogether wanting, alternate or fascicled, 1⁄4–3⁄4 in. long, linear or linear-cuneate or linear-obovate, obtuse or retuse, entire or sinuate or irregularly lobed, varying from almost membranous to thick and coriaceous, narrowed into very short petioles. Flowers minute, solitary or geminate, on very short decurved peduncles, diœcious. Male flowers: Sepals rounded, with fimbriate margins. Petals twice as long as the sepals, linear-oblong, recurved at the tips. Connective of the anthers with a narrow appendage toothed or fimbriate at the tip, and an oblong scale at the back. Females: Calyx and petals of the males, but rather smaller. Abortive anthers present. Style 2-fid. Berry 2-seeded; seeds oblong, flat on the inner face, convex on the outer.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 44.

In its usual state this curious plant is best distinguished from H. crassifolia by the more slender frequently leafless branches, which are usually thickly dotted with minute lenticels, and by the narrower leaves. The Nelson specimens, which are the only ones I have seen in flower, are certainly diœcious, but Tasmanian specimens are said to be hermaphrodite.

A well-marked plant, at once recognised by the usually slender habit, strict branches, and entire obovate leaves. It is generally found on limestone rocks.

4. H. latifolia,Endl. Prodr. Fl. Ins. Norfolk, 70.—A stout sparingly branched shrub 3–10 ft. high; branches erect or straggling; bark covered with minute lenticels. Leaves alternate, variable in size and shape, 11⁄2–4 in. long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate to obovate or obovate-oblong, coriaceous, obtuse or subacute, narrowed into a short stout petiole, sinuate or sinuate-serrate, rarely entire; margin thickened, slightly recurved; veins reticulate. Flowers diœcious, fascicled, 1⁄10 in. diam. Males: Often very numerous and clustered on the branches for a considerable length; pedicels decurved, bracteolate about the middle. Sepals ovate, obtuse, free almost to the base. Petals twice as long as the sepals, linear-oblong, erect at the base, revolute at the tips. Anthers 5; connectives produced into a long and narrow projection above each anther which is almost as long as the anther and jagged at the tip. Females: Smaller and less numerous, on shorter pedicels, usually erect. Sepals and petals as in the males. Ovary ovoid; stigmas 2. Berry broadly ovoid or nearly globose, purplish; seeds 2, plano-convex, grooved on the convex face, with a large strophiole.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 45. H. latifolia var. tasmanica, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. iii. 163.

The identification of this plant with the Norfolk Island H. latifolia must not be considered as proved until specimens from both localities have been compared. The large broad leaves and numerous flowers separate it from its New Zealand allies.

There is little to separate this from the preceding except the longer and narrower sharply toothed leaves and the 4-seeded berry, and I doubt the constancy of this latter character. Sir James Hector's Patea specimens have neither flowers nor fruit, but appear to belong to the same species.